Last Tuesday we honored Anne-Marie Murphy, one of the teachers at Sandy Hook, who unselfishly covered some of the children with her body to attempt to save their lives. How do you honor a hero? I certainly don’t consider myself a hero, so this was a tricky one for me. But, fortunately, a child and a teen came to my rescue. Ms. Murphy was described as artistic and hard-working and I can think of two young ladies in our church (among many others there) who are extremely artistic, talented and hard-working. One began working hard before she even entered school full-time, singing her way into my heart with her ginger locks and pretty blue eyes. She is now about to graduate high school and also plays a mean piano. While doing 9000 things at once well, she is also the piano and voice teacher for 6 young, aspiring young ladies who pretty much idolize her (They’ve picked an awesome role model!).

One of her young students is just audacious and equally as talented as her mentor when she was the same age. In fact her piano teacher would say she’s even more talented than she was at that age, which is really saying something. This past Sunday the PH and I decided to go and listen to this young lady’s first piano recital and hear her young teacher present her students in concert. Both were awe-inspiring, as well as her other 5 students. We hugged that audacious little lady afterwards and she beamed as we told her how much we loved her performance.

While it may have been a very small act of kindness, I think the point is that all of our youngest citizens need to be praised for all of their positive efforts, even if they are at the beginning stages of the learning curve. And I think Anne-Marie Murphy would have liked that we supported some young artists in this small way.

This puts our MIP Acts of Kindness at 35 to date.

Today we honor Miss Emilie Parker. Here is what CNN said about Emilie:

Emilie “was the type of person who could light up a room,” her father told reporters Saturday. His oldest daughter was “bright, creative and very loving,” and “always willing to try new things other than food,” Robbie Parker said. “Emilie Alice Parker was the sweetest little girl I’ve ever known,” her aunt, Jill Cottle Garrett, said. The family is devastated that “someone so beautiful and perfect is no longer going to be in our lives and for no reason,” Garrett said. “My daughter, Emilie, would be one of the first ones to be standing up and giving her love and support to all of those victims, because that is the type of person she is,” her father said. Emilie’s “laughter was infectious,” he said. “This world is a better place because she has been in it.” Emilie was a mentor to her two younger sisters — ages 3 and 4 — and “they looked to her when they needed comfort,” her father said.

What did you do to honor Ms. Murphy? Please let me know if you participated by submitting a comment below. Thanks!

Tomorrow’s Post: You 3.0: MIP Exercise Plan

You might also like: 26 Tuesday: Anne-Marie Murphy, 26 Tuesday: Grace McDonnell, 26 Tuesday: James Mattioli, 26 Tuesday: Ana Marquez-Greene

Last week’s honoree was Grace McDonnell. Grace loved cupcakes and thus, today I delivered some surprise cupcakes to some friends of mine that I haven’t seen in a long time. This makes our Acts of Kindness MIP count 34.

This week we honor one of Sandy Hook’s teachers. Here’s what CNN said about her:

Anne Marie Murphy, 52